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.She looked at the hand he was attempting to put to his forehead and saw that the knuckles of his fingers were bleeding.It was obvious that he had put up a tremendous fight against his assailants, whoever they were, but the blow from a heavy weapon was what had finally defeated him.She let him rest for a moment.Then she said softly,“Will you try to get to your feet while I help you? I don’t want to leave you here alone while I fetch help.”The Marquis did not reply, but she felt that he understood what she had said to him, for he reached out his hand to try to find something he could pull himself up to his feet with.Putting her hand under his arm and straining every muscle in her body to assist him, Hermia thought that it was only by a miracle and what she knew was his indomitable willpower that finally he stood upright.She placed one of his arms over her shoulder so that he could use her as a crutch and put her other arm round his waist.Then step by step, afraid every moment that he would fall down, she got him to the doorway.She put her free hand up to prevent him from hitting his head on the lintel of the door and he winced as if the part of his head that had been struck felt very tender.But still he did not speak.Then they were outside in the moonlight and moving at a snail’s pace down the path she had come through the wood.*Afterwards Hermia asked herself how she had ever managed to take the Marquis so far, when she had all his weight leaning on her and only by directing his every step was she able to keep him on the path.She felt at times that he must have closed his eyes and just let her lead him as if he was blind.Because of the way she was supporting him, she could not look at his face, but could only drag him to safety, knowing that if the men who had left him imprisoned in the cottage returned there was nothing she could do to save him.It must have been over an hour before they reached the point in the wall where she had climbed into the Park.There they stopped and, when at last she was able to look up at the Marquis, he collapsed onto the ground.As she released her hold on him, he lay stretched out with his eyes closed and once again for one terrifying moment she felt that he might be dead.Then she realised that he had just willed himself to follow her lead and was now too utterly exhausted to go on any further.She felt very much the same herself, but she knew it would be easier now to fetch her father and it was also unlikely that anybody who was looking for the Marquis would find him here while she hurried home.She climbed over the wall, feeling that the Marquis’s weight on her had left her almost crippled.But because she was frightened that he might disappear again while she was gone, she ran back the way she had come through the overgrown garden to the kitchen door.Inside the house she hurried up the stairs and without knocking burst into her parents’ room.They were both asleep and, as Hermia stood there gasping for breath, her mother awoke first to ask,“What is it, darling? What is the matter?”“P-Papa – I want Papa!” Hermia grated in a voice that did not sound like her own.Her father sat up.“What has happened? Who wants me?”“I-I have found the – Marquis!”For no reason she could understand tears began to run down her cheeks as she spoke.“You have found the Marquis?” the Vicar repeated in astonishment.“Where was he?”“He was in – Witch Wood, Papa, and I have – brought him – along the path as far as the wall – but he is badly – injured.”“In Witch Wood?’ her father said.“I cannot understand why he should be there.”“He was put there by men who must have – attacked him.He has been hit on the head – but he is – alive!”As if her father understood the urgency of what she was saying, he started to climb out of bed.“Go and fetch Nanny,” her mother said, “while Papa and I dress.If his Lordship is wounded, tell her that we shall need hot water and bandages.”Hermia disappeared to do what she was told and, by the time she had woken Nanny and explained what had happened, her father was coming down the stairs.“Show me where you have left him,” he said.“I suppose I can manage to bring him back on my own?”For the first time Hermia smiled.“I brought him from the witch’s house to the wall”“Obviously by magic,” her father replied, “but I shall have to manage by more human means!”They both laughed and then Hermia was running ahead of her father back to where she had left the Marquis.It took both of them to carry him back through the Park gates and into the Vicarage.He was unconscious and Hermia thought afterwards that it was only because her father was so strong that with her help he could manage.By the time they arrived at the Vicarage her mother and Nanny had made up the bed in Peter’s room
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